Ruby Maps Her World

Gr 2-4–Prolific Yolen conflates children’s mapping books, old and new, in her sweet take on the process. With nods to Sara Fanelli’s 1995 My Map Book and its eccentric art and point of view, the author tweaks her version into a divorce story and the route between Ruby’s two homes. There is little new here, with winks at older readers, such as the stars stuck to Ruby’s bedroom ceiling and her dog’s name, Magellan. Given the gift of a new journal and five markers, Ruby leaves one home with her mother—a cartographer—and dog in tow, headed for the birthday party thrown by her father across town (where there is a second gift of a new journal and markers). She maps not just places and paths, but every observation, from an old man walking with the support of two ski poles to a cyclist in bright pants, from the starlings that fly overhead to the “Woof! Woof! Woof!” of Mags on the walk. She looks far younger in the blocky, bright illustrations than her perfect handwritten notes in the journal indicate. Readers looking for a story or suspense will find they are simply on a walk, with notes in the back matter about different kinds of mapping and a wonderful bibliography that may send them out to research more. Ruby is mixed race; her mother cues white and her father is Asian.